Annual Report

We are pleased to provide the Gates Family Foundation’s 2016 Annual Report. The Annual Report is available exclusively in electronic format. 2016 was an extremely busy year, with the Foundation’s initiated grant making in priority areas expanding substantially. This report provides an overview of the Foundation’s activity during the past year, including grant, Program Related Investment, and mission investing highlights and a complete list of grant payments made during the year. The report also details the financial status of the Foundation.

To continue the Foundation’s participation in this collaborative, which invests in grassroots community organizing groups to engage in activities aimed at mobilizing parents and community members to act as agents of change in improving educational outcomes for low-income students

First payment of a $125,000 commitment to Education Reform Now Colorado to serve as a key partner in assessing the readiness of metro area and rural districts for education reform activity and to advance policies and practices that will support the development of more high-performing schools

As a partner in Foundations for Great Schools, these Gates-initiated grants recognize, reward, and encourage outstanding success among public schools serving low-income families in Metro Denver. Amounts represent 20% of total award. Remainder provided by other partner foundations.

Final payment of a $65,000 commitment to support the Northwest Colorado Board of Cooperative Education Services’ System for Educator Effectiveness project in rural school districts in northwest Colorado

To support RISE Colorado in its efforts to educate and organize low-income parents in Aurora Public Schools, so they may better advocate for policy changes that will drive improved academic achievement for their children

To support a coalition of multimodal advocacy organizations to work in partnership with the City toward increased funding for transportation infrastructure that is accessible to multiple modes (50,000)

Second payment of a $250,000 commitment to support the Colorado Pedals Project, with a required 2:1 match in 2016 and 2017 (85,000)

First payment of a $150,000 commitment to support efforts by High Country News to expand and deepen engagement with a significantly expanded readership by investing in technology, social media promotion, and multi-media journalism

To support development of an interpretive master plan for Boggsville, in partnership with the Bent County Pioneers Society and the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program

To support Colorado Open Land's merger with Legacy Land Trust and its work to explore best tools and techniques for land trust mergers and other sustainable service models for perpetual land conservation, of which up to $20,000 may be used toward the stewardship endowment and the balance will be used in capacity-building work (70,000)

To support a year-long land trust capacity problem-solving dialogue between funders and practitioners (75,000)

To support the Black Canyon Regional Land Trust’s work on a strategy for sustainability and stability, including a possible merger, as a case study for other land trusts in similar situations statewide.

A commitment of up to $1,000,000 to the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT) to support conservation in the San Luis Valley Focus Landscape, to be distributed over five years for landscape scale conservation work along the Rio Grande River and its tributaries

Palmer Land Trust (115,000)
For conservation easements that include a municipal water lease option, to protect four farms owned by the Mendenhall family along the High Line Canal near Rocky Ford

Tamarisk Coalition, Grand Junction (30,000)
First payment of a $90,000 commitment for Tamarisk Coalition’s work to address weed management in the Purgatoire watershed in the southeast Colorado Conservation Partnership region

To support detailed planning, pilot projects, and institutional development for the Metro Denver Nature Alliance in 2017 and 2018

Upper Colorado River Headwaters Focus Landscape

$495,000

A commitment of up to $2,032,000 over six years to support landscape scale conservation in Grand and Eagle counties along the upper Colorado River. Grantee is Colorado Open Lands, on behalf of Colorado Conservation Partnership (Colorado Open Lands, The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and The Trust for Public Land, with local partners Eagle County Open Space and the Colorado Headwaters Land Trust). Projects in 2016 included:

To support the development of new market-based tools (including impact investment structures) through pilot project development

Initiated Grant Commitments

The Gates Family Foundation has had a grant program combining both capital grants and initiated grant making in priority areas since the second half of 2011. As of December 31, 2016, the Foundation had made initiated grant commitments of more than $34.9 million in the areas of K-12 Education, Natural Resources, Rural Communities and Community Development (urban and rural). The Foundation has also made multiple Program Related Investment commitments and its first mission-related investments through the Foundation's investment portfolio during the same period.